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People like to provide a setting conducive to nesting birds so that they may enjoy their beauty and song or to rid their gardens and fruit trees of insects. They accomplish this by fencing in areas of their property so that cats and other predators cannot encroach, by planting fruit trees and plants that produce food and nectar that birds are attracted to, and by setting out feeders and nesting materials to encourage the desired behavior. To encourage cavity nesters such as Chickadees, Finches, Sparrows, and Bluebirds to name a few, people provide them with birdhouses.
Because the size of these cavity nesters differ so greatly, birdhouses come in a wide variety of designs. Patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,170,437 and 5,269,255 address the concept of regulating the volume of the birdhouse to accommodate the size of the occupants. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,746,156 and 4,167,917 relate to varying the size of the entrance hole. Other patents are concerned with protecting the newly laid eggs and/or newly hatched chicks from raids by predators, a problem that recent research has shown, is more prevalent than previously known however, any design that departs significantly from a natural cavity normally found in the wild may discourage birds from investigating the contraption for use as a nesting site. The two simplest design considerations in a birdhouse to discourage predation are 1) limiting the size of the entrance hole so that it is just large enough to allow ingress by the specie of bird desired and 2) leaving the entrance side of the bird house devoid of any accouterments that could give a predator a footing relying instead on the nimbleness and agility of the breeding pair to gain entry.
Because birds are not particular, they will nest in almost any structure but several universal features of a birdhouse have been identified as beneficial to these homemakers, whether built by a hobbyist or purchased in a store: 1) It should be generally water tight and shed water in a storm. 2) It should be well ventilated. 3) It should be constructed so that it can be cleaned after each nesting season and 4) It should provide protection from predators and parasites.
Nothing in the prior art has addressed the plight of the nestling ready to fledge. Imagine being huddled together with up to seven brothers and sisters in a dark cramped enclosure without enough room to even air out their partially feathered wings and then, when they reach adolescence and with no exercise or training, be expected to mount the entrance hole which can be up to fifteen feet in the air, and fly! for the first time! and land safely for the first time! Many young birds do not accomplish this feat, miss their mark, are injured, and die. Accordingly, the following described invention substantially departs from the prior art and describes a unique deployable fledging board designed to allow fledglings the opportunity to exercise and train outside the nest just prior to flying into the world.
This invention relates to a deployable platform that, when erected, provides a brief training area for young birds just prior to their first flight into the world. Accordingly, several objects and advantages of this invention are:
(a) to decrease the mortality rate among newly hatched birds
(b) to increase the enjoyment and pleasure of bird house providers